There music is okay. But I have never actually bought any of their records.
but I agree they are iconic and have a huge fan base.
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I thought once the album was released she would do a little tv promo, but sadly no.
I’m wondering if “Thank You” will re-promoted in the UK next year to correspond with the tour. Glastonbury is a massively high profile gig, certain to garner her oodles of media attention. Hopefully the albums full potential has yet to be realised.
CBC just had a story on Adele. There was not a mention of sales. Only streaming and YouTube views and listens on Apple Music etc. Evidently, Adele had the most first day listens in history [[or some such record).
All is changed.
I noticed one of Diana's songs had 1.8 million You Tube views; I think it was I Still Believe. I don't know any of these new songs.
I think most of us are too old to be able to adapt to all these new rules and new ways, lol. Sorry, I am.
In its 3rd week on UK chart Diana opens at #43 - not bad in the circumstances
When she performed the last time in the Netherlands, in 2009,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDVK-4tET4M
Then a certain discount drugstore had a special edition with a compilation out, including new numbers. I believe you even got it a free one when you bought a ticket.
It reached number 5 and stayed 15 weeks in the Dutch album top 100.
So, yeah....remember the soaring numbers for One Woman, The Ultimate Collection in the UK? 1.200.000, 4 times platinum, so making it a double cd, a greatest hits collection + Thank You could work....
Okay, different times, different strokes...Vinyl is making a revival amongst hipsters? Combine it maybe with An Evening With...so they can hear her in her prime?
#55 on 3rd week in UK Album chart.
#23 on Sales only.
Just seen that. She may just get a 4th week.
With Christmas season shopping season starting, it could remain, if not rise a bit, on the UK chart.
Meanwhile here in the US it didn't chart in Billboard's Top 200 and dropped from #16 to #85 in Top Album Sales. Amazon selling it for $8 at 43% off is not a good visual either. The reality is this album already charted as high as it's going to go here.
This could have done so much better and it's one thing - promotion. Diana's unwillingness to promote it is why this isn't selling like it should. A tweet and an Instagram post is not enough. All she needed was to do a few remote interviews on Good Morning America, The View or the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about the album and it would have done wonders for the sales. If she's unwilling to promote this album, what makes Universal/Decca think they want to do more things with her. History lesson: Jean Terrell and A&M.
For Diana, being a legend is not enough to sell.
I agree that promotion has been scant. To be fair, she has posted and promoted Thank You on her social media accounts, which apparently have a couple hundred thousand followers. But it seems like most of them ignored it, or they rarely if ever use their accounts for whatever reason so never saw the posts, or they didn't like what they heard, or they're into Diana Ross for what made her a legend and have no interest in new material from her. For the last group, the adage "What they wanted yesterday is what they want today" applies.
and who cares about ABBA? they're not on Motown and never were...and if you want to play that game, Billie Elish runs rings around ABBA in her sleep..
Your missing the point. The only reason ABBA are mentioned is because the two albums were released simultaneously which was never a good idea.
What is this game you infer people are playing?. All i read are fans discussing sales of Diana’s album and how a modicum of tv promotion might have made a huge difference.
Why take offence. :confused:
Let’s also not forget Ross is not coming off a huge last cd. Her cds have kind of flopped for the past couple/several decades. She has no recent coat tails to ride on. Thank You came in cold.
I did not buy because I had no interest in it. I have had enough of her doing things her way. I loved her when she did things she was told to do, aka the Motown years.
I am not surprised that Diana has chosen to not do any promotion for the album. She was clearly not contractually obligated to do any. At her age, I can't really blame her for opting out of promotional activities. She's a 77 year old legend, who has worked her butt off for decades, promoting project after project. Why should she continue to hussle? I would imagine that doing rounds of interviews in the midst of the pandemic is even more unappealing to her, as the pandemic has evidently contributed to some additional feelings of anxiety for her. She mentioned she had to be convinced by her sons to film those two latest music videos, as she was uneasy about being in close proximity to other people. Despite all of this, as easy as it is to do a phone or video interview from the comfort of your home these days, we can also see how much promotion she did for the I Love You album and how it really made little difference in boosting sales. That album was by no means a chart topper. In this case, she was given an opportunity to record new music, on her own terms, and happily did it. It's clear that her attitude is, "I'm here today and have nothing left to prove...take me or leave me". Dame Shirley Bassey also released an album last year and she is in her 80's now. She did almost no promotion for it either, other than a couple of brief press interviews that we were printed, and like Diana, she also released her album on Decca.
While Diana's album won't be a chart topper, I think that it will continue to sell in small, steady numbers. It sounds like she is preparing to go back on the road next year, both in the States and in the UK, which will certainly help sales as well. At her age, she's using her time wisely, choosing to do only those things that she enjoys...like recording an album from home, being on stage and spending time with her family. I'm sure spending time catering to the media, many of whom have unrightfully dogged her for years, is the last thing on her list. I would love to see her make a TV appearance, just as much as any other fan, but I respect her wishes and I am thankful for Thank You :D
Perhaps she will surprise us with an appearance or two, once she is able to firm up her concert schedule. It would make sense to promote the album and any potential concerts in tandem.
Great post, yes I agree Diana Ross is doing only what she enjoys doing and that's what contributes to her happy outlook, although I sure would like to see her perform I Still Believe or a medley on one of the upcoming award shows and make a big splash as she did on the AMA's not that long ago!
Your most probably right Carlo, and think it’s just a question of fans wanting the album to do well and becoming a little frustrated by lack of promotion. It’s only natural. I really don’t think anyone feels she has something to prove.
With new Covid variants popping up all the time, i’m becoming less confident of the UK tour ever taking place. Hope I’m wrong.
I wonder if she's worried the media will ask her questions about Mary's passing. She hated talking about Flo's death in interviews and the very few times it happened, it was clear she was uneasy about it. Mary's death was just not too long ago so I'm sure they'd be inclined to ask her about it.
I agree, Ollie. We as her fans want her album to do well. I'm speaking more to the point that she doesn't need to do promo if she doesn't want to.
I also feel the same as you. I feel less confident that next summer's shows will go ahead...especially Glastonbury. For the sake of the UK fans, I hope I am wrong. We must keep a bit of hope and optimism.
I am a fan of a group that has been touring arenas in the UK for the past month, and one of the five members contracted covid, mid way through the tour. They were able to continue the tour without her. She is now out of her 10 day isolation and has rejoined the tour, which ends in a few days, but now a different member of the group tested positive and is out for the remainder of the shows. They have been super careful with maintaining their own bubble with only their crew, and travelling mostly with their own bus, but covid has sadly still proven to be a challenge.
I don't think that has any bearing on Diana's promotion for THANK YOU. If she doesn't want to talk Mary, Supremes, or any other subject, I'm sure she can make that clear before an interview.
I gather she just doesn't want to do much promotion for THANK YOU, at least not now. Maybe next year she'll change her mind if tour dates are finalized. But by then, I don't know how much difference it will make.
Hindsight is 20/20 but I agree with those who wrote that THANK YOU should have been released months back when the news first broke about it. There was a lot of attention in the press and on some of the morning tv shows. Perhaps if it had been released then more buyers aside from the diehards would have taken an interest.
Clive Davis made the same mistake with Aretha's last album. She was on tv shows singing ROLLING IN THE DEEP and doing various listening dates. But they held off releasing the album for a month or two. It debuted in the Top 20 but was off the chart entirely within weeks.
Sadly my gut feeling which I've had for some time now is that the tour will NOT go ahead.
Sales are now increasing towards Christmas - if the album had been released any later it wouldn't have done "relatively" as well i.e. on the same figures made the top 10 in the UK.
Of course no promotion didn't help it but why would anyone think it was going to be a big hit?
The little success it did have was down to the support of our National Radio 2 Station which supported the first two singles from Thank You.
As I've said before while Diana has had some big albums generally her studio albums haven't done that well in the UK.
Her last big seller was Force some 30 years ago - I Love You did terribly - you're talking about the guts of 20 years since she was in the public eye here.
Most of the younger fans hard as it may seem for us to understand hardly know who Diana is!
She may have had a few monster hits in the US Dance Chart in the past few years but very few people in the UK would look at you anything but blankly if you mentioned the name Eric Kupper to them.
The fact is that with Streaming dominating music "sales", artists of Diana's ilk find it impossible to have a chart hit unless they can team up for a duet with one of today's big stars.
None of the tracks stood a chance of charting but Decca would have known that from the start.
I wouldn't say it was by any means one of Diana's best albums but it's a solid effort imo worth while buying
We all have our own favourites too - I think the first two singles were among the top 3 or 4 songs on the album but whereas Ollie for example raves about Tomorrow I don't get it all.
There was no way this album was going to sell buckets.
There's kind of a great big elephant in the room that seems to be getting tip-toed around .
I think any interviewer worth a grain of salt, and I realize that's a rare thing these days, would want to press her on why this new album after waiting forty-four or so years , now, so soon after Mary's death, this one .... total coincidence? , or is there some kind of connection ?? Surely she can handle answering that .
Also. " Diana, Your album is focused on being thankful and grateful yet there's nary a reference to Motown ......which surely you owe a mountain of gratitude to?"
Maybe like at the RCA meeting Bayoumotownman just referenced Diana would've just stormed out :eek:......well that in of itself would've given her a headline ....
These fluff pieces I've seen referenced here so far just ain't working ....buncha ho hum ....
There's a big difference between the single and album charts.
Streisand wouldn't make the UK Top 100 Singles Chart now.
Diana has been primarily a singles artist in the UK while her studio albums have performed erratically in the UK whereas since the 1980's Barbra has had a string of successful albums.
She has had 4 or 5 Gold or Platinum albums in the new Millennium, interestingly though her last one has only been certified Silver, a sign of the decreasing album market.
All, sadly, quite true, Florence. Here in the states there is virtually no terrestrial or subscription radio station that would add anything from the lp to their play lists: even the 'lite' stations only play oldies. My thought is that the best hope would have been for one of the cuts to be featured on a popular tv series. I'm happy to have the lp and truly love it!
gosh it sure seems like 44 years ...
sadly that appears to be the case. and when/if doing an interview is ever asked about it, I'd advise her to finesse that answer ....Quote:
Also, she was talking about working on her new album during the summer of 2019, when Mary was still alive...so there is no connection between Diana releasing a new album and Mary's passing.
Steps have now postponed the last shows of the tour until next summer, after even more people involved in the tour got Covid.
I don´t think anything is guaranteed these days when it comes to touring so I decided not to re-purchase tickets to see Diana next year. Maybe I can get tickets in the spring, if things are looking better then - and if the shows will indeed happen.
#66 on first chart for this week
And at this time of year many of the Lite stations in the US have switched over to an all holiday/Christmas music playlist.
Though the title song "Thank You" could work on a holiday format given the nature of the song and this being the season of "giving" and would stand out amongst all the songs about Santa, mangers and Christmas trees and the like.
Agreed, Peace! We will give that one an 'A' for effort. Lol.
So glad to hear that you're enjoying her new album as much as I am! I have been playing it almost everyday since it came out. I'm now considering getting the cassette version as well...it just looks so darn cute! And I still have a working cassette stereo deck and cassette boom box to play it on lol.
I'm impressed that you knew I was writing about Steps, even though I didn't mention them by name :) They are one of my favourite groups and we had every intention of travelling to see them on tour this year, but could not take the risk with the pandemic still ongoing. Like you said, it is too unpredictable and risky these days. I also saw that same news this morning in regards to the postponement of the final two dates of their tour, due to their crew's covid outbreak.
I am also a big Steps fan :) But I have to say, now with that latest Covid variant [[and early news about the possibility of the vaccine having to be modified to work against it) it is looking less and less like I will be seeing Diana next summer - if indeed the shows happen.
Down to 81 this week.